Cohen, Mirah

The pretty little Jewess whom Daniel Deronda rescues from suicide and later marries. "Imagine her with her dark hair brushed from her temples, but yet showing certain tiny rings there which had cunningly found their own way back, the mass of it hanging behind just to the nape of the little neck in curly fibres, such as renew themselves at their own will after being bathed into straightness like that of water-grasses. Then see the perfect cameo her profile maeks, cut in a duskish shell where by some happy fortune there pierced a gem-like darkness for the eye and eyebrow; the delicate nostrils defined enough to be ready for sensitive movements, the finished ear, the firm curves of the chin and neck entering into the expression of a refinement which was not feebleness." When she was a young child her father, an actor, had taken her away from her mother and brother, and for many years they led a Bohemian life distasteful to Mirah, who was strongly attached to the Jewish faith. In order to escape the dishonourable attentions of a man seconded by her father, she runs away from her father and comes to London to seek her mother and brother. Unsuccessful in her search, worn out and penniliess, she attempts to drown herself in the Thames, but is rescued by Daniel Deronda, and taken to Mrs. Meyrick. Here her voice, which has been carefully trained, supports her, and when her brother Ezra, or Mordecai, is found she cares for him tenderly until his death. Shortly before Mordecai's death she and Daniel Deronda are married.

<em>Daniel Deronda</em>

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